Right now lawmakers are focusing on two bills in particular. One targets the rewards inmates receive for good behavior and the other goes after anyone who helps dangerous prisoners escape.

The first bill in the works is called the “Prisoner Privilege Limitation Law.”Assemblyman James Tedisco, the House Democratic whip, proposed the bill shortly after Matt and Sweat escaped from prison on June 6.

The bill has three parts. First, Tedisco said inmates who are considered “the worst of the worst,” including murderers, rapists and child molesters, should never have access to street clothes.

As a perk, Matt and Sweat, had access to some civilian clothes. They wore those clothes when they broke out of the prison, and used other clothing to dress up “dummies” to leave in their beds, so they would pass bed checks and get a head start on their escape.

Tedisco said the second part of the legislation would take away the Honor Block as an incentive for the most violent prisoners.

Right now, inmates who behave well can earn a cell on the Honor Block where there are more freedoms. They are also allowed to cook their own food on that block.“Matt and Sweat only behaved well in Dannemora so they could escape from Dannemora,” Tedisco said.

The third part of Tedisco’s bill would be to have a trained Corrections Officer supervise all contact between inmates and civilian employees. In Matt and Sweat’s case, they became close to prison seamstress Joyce Mitchell.

“(Matt and Sweat) should never had had access to her and she should never have had access to them in a separate, alone way,” Tedisco said.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to helping the two escape from the maximum-security prison in Dannemora. She gave them the tools they needed to cut through walls and was supposed to be their ride on the night they left. But she backed out at the last minute.

That sent Matt and Sweat into the thick woods of the Adirondacks and set off a 22-day manhunt. The search cost New York taxpayers at least $20 million.

For her part, Mitchell is now serving up to seven years in prison. By law, it was the longest term Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie could get.

State Sen. Betty Little said she doesn’t think it’s long enough.

“I do think it should be a longer term, and this new legislation, when we get it enacted, it will be longer,” Little said.

Little voted for a different bill in the Senate that would increase prison terms for those who help inmates escape to up to 25 years behind bars.

That bill passed the last session, but did not make it to the Assembly floor in Albany.

Little thinks it might make it through both Houses when the new session begins in January.

“Maybe this will be a little different because the cost, the damage, the fear for the people that lived in the area was really enormous,” Little said.

Mitchell is paying $80,000 in restitution, but it was also the most the Wylie could ask for. The state will likely be on the hook for the rest of the money.

“Look, $20 million can educate a lot of our children. (It) can help a lot of high-need, low-wealth (school) districts, and can go for a lot of food pantries,” Tedisco said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed Inspector General Catherine Leahy-Scott to do an independent investigation into the escape from Dannemora. That report is not out yet.

When it is released, Tedisco said more changes may need to happen, but there’s no need to wait until then to make his bill a law.

“I think once was enough and shame on us if we don't learn from our first mistakes upfront as a state and correct those mistakes and make sure it never happens again,” Tedisco said.

Tedisco said he was not against incentives for inmates and encouraging good behavior for privileges. He’s only against the kinds of privileges for the most dangerous prisoners who he said can manipulate the system with what they earn.